This week we hosted two Consumer Conversations to seek the consumer view of what Queensland Health’s Funding Priorities should be for 2020/2021. In all, 42 consumers were involved from our our COVID-19 Community of Interest Group, members of the Health Consumers Collaborative of Queensland and our own Consumer Advisory Group (CAG) as well as HHS CAG Leaders and consumer representatives from some of the Statewide Clinical Network Steering Committees.
While talking about the proposed priorities for the next financial year, it was clear that health consumers are ready for some major changes in health. The recent Queensland Clinical Senate meeting also demonstrated a parallel appetite for change by clinicians in the health system too.
Consumers identified major reforms to long-held traditions and ways of addressing health care including:
- the way patients are categorized for care (not just triaged by clinical need/clinically appropriate wait times, but in the context of complexities in their lives)
- re-imagining HHS borders to better reflect referral pathways that work for consumers
- the way healthcare is funded (outcomes, rather than volume)
- collaborating with consumers to design new models of care, service improvements and funding models as well as when providing them with individual care
- actively addressing the social and cultural determinants of health and the systems barriers that keep some people in a cycle of poverty and ill-health.
Above all, consumers want fair, equitable and maximum access to health care services for every Queenslander.